Playing in the Sand
by Luna's Blades
Summary: Amethyst and Peridot try to fuse on purpose on the beach. Second chapter fixed amap.
1. Chapter 1

Amethyst took a position in the sand of the beach, making a gesture that Peridot took to mean that she should take up a position across from her in the sand, some 20 'feet" away.

"I'll start," Amethyst said, hips already on their way to wiggling. "Remember that we're trying to like synch up to each other, so aim for that!"

Amethyst started up her dance while Peridot watched, trying to see the rhythm behind her steps. After several seconds and an impatient gesture from Amethyst, Peridot started to dance herself. It was jerky, trying to copy the basic steps from Amethyst's dance. There was a beat to her steps, so long as Peridot tried to punctuate her movements along with that beat, she could feel a wavering tension snap into place across the sand between them.

"Yeah! Feel that?" Amethyst was slightly out of breath from her own efforts, punctuating her words with flourishes Peridot was feeling at a loss to keep up with. "Aim for that!"

Peridot slitted her eyes, trying to focus more on the nebulous thing between them. It was like trying to navigate the distance from the thinking room to the front door in the dark, feeling for it with senses she wasn't even sure she was equipped with. As the seconds passed, Peridot could feel her body sliding into the groove that the tension between them was calling her too, anticipating the rhythm instead of reacting to it. The line between them became paradoxically more convoluted as Peridot felt it drawing herself and Amethyst closer. There were accent rhythms, flourishes that she felt as much as saw. She could feel how much Amethyst was enjoying dancing just for the sake of dancing. It was infectious. Peridot let herself fall into all of it, the rhythm, the joy, the flourishes of a music that she couldn't _quite_ hear, but could feel in the very matrix of her gem.

Amethyst was dancing only inches from her now, the heat of her metabolism enough to feel. Her half-lidded eyes caught Peridot's and there were so many things she could almost feel in that gaze, words she didn't know trying to make themselves in her mind. The power between them was palpable now, a living thing all it's own trying to come into being. Amethyst spared her a wink, full of something the link between them translated and Peridot, full of the spirit of the thing between them, laughed and danced away, prolonging this just a moment more. Amethyst stuttered a step, the word ' _tease'_ crawling into Peridot's mind, though Peridot had never used the word with the emphasis that was being applied to it. It made her bold. As Amethyst followed her across the soft sand, Peridot had no illusions of holding out for long, but she found she did like the feeling of leading the last few steps, of being pursued. Peridot maintained the distance between them for a few moments longer, finally answering Amethyst's flourishes with little flourishes of her own. Amethyst finally closed the distance, swirling in in a way that took advantage of her particular center of mass and grace while Peridot gave in to the spirit trying to come to life between them and reached out towards her.

And then there was someone new twirling across the beach.


	2. Chapter 2

They are both delicate in their own ways. Insecure in their own ways. Frankly, broken in their own ways. But somehow those things, all the little places where the seams come together, make them perfect to each other in a way that has nothing to do with perfection. There was a balance struck between opposing forces that gave them an understanding of what opposite actually meant. They didn't feel like three people all trying to occupy the same mind and body, but something more closely resembling one person with multiple different strong priorities. Some were very clearly from Peridot, others were all Amethyst, and all of them were naturally Fluorite's. Experiences that were somehow both new and old hat were swarming her with the sort of mad, delighted, scientific wonder she imagined lead to the invention of things like really clever bongs and liquids humans can breathe. Flourite decided that this was the sort of thing to be indulged and proceeded to get started on experimenting with every half-new aspect of her being. Starting, of course, with dancing.

She was suddenly much taller than Amethyst and Peridot had been moments before, their respective builds different enough that Flourite had to borrow heavily from Amethyst's experiences as Opal. The twirl Flourite had materialized with gave her greater mass and higher center of gravity a problem and she stumbled after the first couple steps, almost landing mug first in the sand. Regaining her balance, Flourite caught sight of the beach house and simultaneously realized that the moment Steven realized what was going on he and the rest of the gems would be out faster than when the ice cream van rolled by, and that she wanted to enjoy the feeling of simply existing for a little while longer before she had to share it with anyone else. She took off down the beach, wading knee deep into the ocean both to hide her tracks and just to feel three foot of water across new skin. Once she was sure she was out of sight of the house, she dove all the way into the ocean, trying to feel the sensation of the water on as much of her skin as possible. Literally in over her head, Fluorite's hair flowed in the water, the current making itself felt even against her scalp. Opening her eyes, she looked down to try and see her feet, but apparently the water wasn't as clear as she thought it was because she could barely see them. She stood there for a little while, just enjoying the soft tug and pull of the water, it's pressure against her skin, the sweet coolness that eased the heat from running. It occurred to her to wonder, she knew not from where, just exactly how tall she really was. The idle thought quickly became a sort of mild compulsion, tugging her back down the beach with only her head above water until she got to the beach house.

Once there, she decided to play with Steven a little bit. Sneaking around to the back of the house, she found the window to Steven's loft and discovered the answer to her question was 'not quite tall enough'. She could reach the window easily, but she was a solid couple feet short of being able to look in. Realizing this was actually better, she pulled herself up enough to see that Steven was actually in there and tapped on the window, dropping back down. Steven jumped like he'd been watching something he wasn't supposed to be even though Flourite could see he was just playing games. He came to the window, heart still thumping.

The look on his face was 100% worth it.

As he caught sight of her his jaw dropped and his eyes got that particular starry look that reminded her simultaneously of Rose and Greg. There was a pang and a flood of memories she made a note to explore at length when she wasn't about to show off. Grinning like a madwoman, she gestured for Steven to open the window and once she was uninhibited she held out her hand to him to inspect in the moments he was still speechless. A silly thought that she was treating him like a strange dog was tamped down as he took her hand with a delicate touch and started inspecting her.

"You're amazing!" Were the first words out of his mouth, the awe in his voice no less flattering for having heard it it so often with different ears.

"I know, right?" Flourite's grin was contagious and she let him twirl her for the sheer joy of it. A mischievous impulse caught her as she thought of another great idea.

"Hey Steve-o, wanna piggy back ride?"

Again, like the sun finally shining after weeks of clouds. She thought his face might actually break from smiling so much.

She helped Steven get into a sitting position on the sill and helped him get down on to her broad shoulders. Once she could feel that his whole weight had settled on to her shoulders, she gripped Steven's ankles in one oversize hand and led Steven to hold onto her chin so his balance would be right.

"Twirl!" Steven's joyful command was obeyed with an initial trepidation, until she realized he was better at staying on than she thought and she complied with more abandon.


End file.
